Karen, the Desire of My Heart

every place where mom has been becomes a home. it is so amazing. despite how untidy the room could get with 2 people living in it, it was heart warming…knowing that someone was actually making the best use out of every square meter. she left for bangkok this morning. and i think i’m just missing her again. but don’t worry. i’ll see my whole family in just about 2 weeks. 🙂

i am so thankful that tomorrow i won’t have to get up early. this week has been one of the longest ever. i guess when you anticipate something to happen, it drags on. it will still be long, the weekend, but at least there won’t be any pressure of work.

on another note, i’ve been more sure about my desire to work among karen people. next week, i am going on a trip to the thai-burma border again with a group of koreans. i’ve been to these projects before. we will get to visit children at home. so today i was given a report on the projects and the houses we are to visit.

their stories break my heart. some of them are karen refugees while some are stateless people. some may have lived here long enough to attain some type of id but it takes too much money and effort to go extra length to get the proper “thai” id. thus, they cannot have access to certain services, especially the medical.

for example, one home just lost their father in late march because he ate some poisonous animal insides and got severe diarrhea. death. the mother, thus, has to take care of 4 girls. one mentally challenged 15-year-old, normal but scared 9-year-old (compassion child), an unhealthy 2-year-old and a still-red baby. she has to work so hard that the 9-year-old has to take full responsibility on household chores, which includes taking care of her siblings. with her hands full, she had to quit school so she could focus her attention on the family matters.

one day, when the mother was out working, the baby was wailing for a long time because she was hungry. but just like any other poor refugee family, there was no rice or milk in the house at all. so she did what she could at the moment for her baby sister – she went to a store nearby and bought a bag of orange juice (concentrated juice, i suppose) to feed her. it turned out that she had really bad diarrhea afterwards. when the mother learned of this, she rushed her to the only place she could take her to – a refugee camp’s hospital. the baby was treated and had to be admitted there for a night but the mom couldn’t leave the other girls at home alone (which is just a bamboo house with no proper wall). plus, the 2-year-old was sick as well. so she took the baby home against the doctor’s advice. when they got home, the baby was gone.

preventable disease. what a waste of life.

this is what keeps me at compassion. at this time of life, i can help these people best by being here. although i want to live among them one day, this is what God wants right now. to reach out to them through compassion. to see the actual need and bring help in the ways that i can. but in the future, i hope God would send me there to be with the karen, to be a part of them and to bring love and Jesus to them.

“God, how i wish many people didn’t have to suffer the way they did. i wish there wouldn’t be such a huge gap between the rich and the poor.”

Wow that is so so sad. I praise God for you and Compassion. It is awesome work you guys do. I will keep praying God’s direction for you as you have such a strong desire for the area. It is needed in that area so much.